Too Soon Forgotten
by Ben Schwartz and Jesse Riemer Too Soon Forgotten was the 2010 Winter Game of Westfinder, which took place on December 29th. It involved a secret evil militant sect of the government, a crazy adventuring archaeologist, a wedding-gone-wrong, a forbidden temple, and evil aliens that fed off human souls. Needless to say, it was epic. Teaser Shona and Paso were halfway to the ruins by the time Mesa caught up to them. He leaned against a tree, panting. Shona looked at him disdainfully. “What’s wrong, Mesa, can’t keep up?” He crossed his arms and waited for his brother’s answer. He wore the tribe’s usual garb, a motley of ragged wrappings and tattered tunics. The younger boy scowled at Shona. “You have… to come back… to the village,” he managed, between breaths. “Why?” Paso stepped up, putting an arm around Shona. Paso kept her long hair tied back with a thread, and wore a heavy coat, emblazoned with the strange runes of the Ancients. “Says who?” “Says the Elder,” Mesa shot back, standing upright. His clothes were marked with the bright red stripes of his position as the Elder’s apprentice. “Oh come on,” Paso said. “He’ll never notice we’re gone. Besides, we’ve got important work to do.” “Yeah,” Shona said, nodding. “We have to go look for warmer clothes in the ruins. Winter is coming, and I for one don’t want to freeze to death.” “You can’t steal from the Ancients!” Mesa was practically in tears. Paso rolled her eyes. “We’re not stealing. The Ancients left this stuff for us as gifts, right? Shouldn’t we use those gifts?” Mesa glared at her. “The Elder is gonna know. It’s Ascension Day, remember? He’ll notice if you’re missing!” Shona sighed. “Ascension Day. I knew we were forgetting something.” “Oh come on, Shona. You’re gonna let some ceremony get in the way of our exploration?” She tugged on his arm. “We can come back another day, Paso. The ruins aren’t going anywhere.” He smiled. “They’ve been here since the dawn of time, they can wait another few days.” When they arrived back in the village, the Elder was already in the tail end of the ceremonial prayers. The entire village had gathered in the clearing of trees that marked the rough center of the village. Everyone had emerged from their huts for this, their one grand celebration of the year. A feast was laid out on a set of tables near the center of the crowd, and the Elder stood on a small platform just next to them. He had his hands in the air as he spoke. The three teens slipped into the back of the crowd, quietly hoping no one had really noticed their absence. “…so we give thanks, to our Ancients, who gifted us these, their sacred lands.” “So that we may watch over them,” the assembled crowd intoned as one. “And in their beyond, the Ancients reign eternal,” the Elder continued. “So that they may watch over us,” the crowd replied, finishing the traditional benediction. Mesa popped out of the crowd next to the Elder, who smiled down at him. The boy returned the grin, then looked back at where Shona was lurking on the edge of the clearing. Mesa stuck out his tongue, prompting his older brother to roll his eyes. “My friends,” the Elder said, his voice powerful despite his age. “I bring strange tidings on this Ascension Day. I believe we are at the cusp of a time of great change, a time of upheaval, a time of unrest.” “Yeah,” Paso whispered to Shona. “Maybe ‘cause your little apprentice is a blithering idiot who won’t be able to hold anything together when you’re dead!” Shona elbowed her in the ribs. “That’s my brother! He’ll be fine! Hush.” The Elder was still speaking. “…as I have done a thousand times before. But this night, something was different. I checked my records, I checked my instruments, I checked everything. But the great telescope does not lie. It is my greatest gift from the Ancients, and it does not lie. It shows only the truth.” He paused. “The truth is this: there is a new star in the sky.” The crowd began murmuring immediately, in hushed tones. The Elder raised his hands, motioning for silence. “I do not know what this star means. I have looked at it through the great telescope, and it is an impossible star. It shows a myriad colors, winking on and off, and looms in the sky far larger than any other recorded." Paso frowned, whispering again. “How would a new star appear in the sky?” “Shut up, Paso, maybe he’ll explain,” Shona growled, eyes locked on the Elder. “The stars are the curtain to the beyond, the Great Oblivion,” the Elder said. “The stars are a gift from the Ancients, as is everything. The stars show us their will, their memory, their legacy. A new star can mean only one thing: something has changed in the beyond.” Shona swallowed, and looked down to see that he was holding Paso’s hand tightly. He hadn’t noticed himself taking her hand. “Hey,” she said, looking at him. “You okay?” He blinked for a moment, not meeting her eyes. “I’m scared, Paso.” She squeezed his hand. “Whatever’s coming… we’ll… we’ll make it through.” Shona hesitated, then nodded slowly. He knew Paso well enough to know when she was lying. To know that she was just as unnerved as he was. And somehow, that scared him most of all. What Really Happened The tribe began their marriage ceremony while the expedition landed on the planet, read some runes, and figured out they were stuck. They ran into the tribe and joined them quite happily, until they decided to go mess with the Forbidden Temple, awakening an evil race of alien called the Kr. The Kr begin killing everyone, and the survivors are rounded up by the Vedettes, who kill the Kr and gather everyone to explain that their souls are being used to fuel a machine. Then try to shoot everyone. The survivors hide as the Vedettes and Kr search for them and scrimage. Finally, Miranda Nyx managed to get herself a hearing with the Vedettes, who agreed to lend her their transmitter as they charged in on a suicide mission to nuke the place (it was Ben Schwartz's plan). The Vedettes set up the nuke, were betrayed, shot, and stabbed, Miranda teleported off the planet, the Kr unleashed the signal from the machine awakening a galaxy-wide recall of the Kr from Oblivion, then the nuke went off, killing everyone on the planet. Nyx was the only character to survive, and she then proceeded to warn Andrew Alistair about the oncoming invasion, giving the human race enough time to prepare and actually do something instead of just die. FULL STORY: http://z7.invisionfree.com/westfinder/index.php?showtopic=25&st=0&#last Cast Tribe *Shaman/the Elder - *Shona - *Paso - *Mesa - Expedition *Meredith Alistair - *Hunter Chapman - *Daniel O'Neil - *Dr. Chapman - *Lyssandra Markos - *Em Nyx - *Miranda Nyx - *Sylva Terran - *Jakon Darian - *Lisa - *Lucian - Vedettes *Anubis - Category:Games